Japanese Style Christmas Pt. 2

With the cake done I got started on what turned out to be the easiest part of dinner. The Wontons. I bought the wonton wrapper/dough at the Japan-Sage Market for just under $2.00., now while it didn't come with directions, this was easy enough to figure out without the directions.
What you'll need is some wonton wrappers, cubed cheese, and a little water. Set out one wonton and put a tiny cube of cheese near the middle. Before you fold the corners to meet, forming the triangle, dip your pinkie in water and get the edges wet. This will hold the dough together better. Seal it up good because you don't want cheese getting in your oil.
It should look something like this when you're done:

Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet, or a wok if you own one. It should be around 300F before you turn it down to a medium-high. Put the wontons in but don't over-crowed your pan/wok. As they turn brown, pull them out so they don't burn.

Look yummy huh? Oh they were!

Then it was the chicken... This was not as fun as I hoped.

Poke holes in the thawed brumbsticks befor you put the drum sticks in a marinade of soy sauce, ginger, and sake. Let it sit in the fridge for an hour. When the time's up, dry them with a paper towel before you put potato startch on them.

Heat the oil in your pan/wok to around 400F then CAREFULLY put the chicken in.

Here is where my night took an interesting turn.

I fried the chicken as long as it said and damn things still weren't done. No we had to throw them in the ovan for almost an hour before they were done. Pissed off does not come cloud to how mad I got.

Over reaction? Yes. But things don't usually go that way for me in the kitchen so I over reacted.

And oh my god it was SO GOOD! Does anyone have good chicken frying tips?

Japanese Style Christmas Pt. 1

To those of us in America and/or Europe, Christmas is what December has become all about.
For better or worse.
Just saying Christmas brings images of snow, cookies, Santa Clause, decorated trees, hug credit card bills, car crashes, Secret Santa, and those god awful sweaters. Families gather for Christmas dinner (or in the case of mine, breakfast) and the munchkins run around the tree shouting, “Lookie! Lookie! I got just what I wanted!”
However! This is not exactly the case in Japan. Let me remind you all of something: Christmas is a Christian Holiday.
Christianity is in Japan, yes, although Shinto and Buddhism are the norms. So they view Christmas differently than you or I.
They have taken many of our traditions and adopted them in their own way. Christmas trees are brought into the home, holiday parties are held, and gifts are exchanged. I’ve read that they have Christmas Markets in many cities now that bring is a lot of crowds.
While we Westerners make Christmas a family event, in Japan it’s more of a couples event. Kinda like Valentine’s Day, couples go out to dinner and then maybe a hotel or someplace very romantic. And, just like V-Day, if you’re a single girl-be ready for constant reminders of it.
In most of the big cities, Tokyo and Sendai especially, they string out the whole downtown with lights. Trust me when I say this isn’t your next-door neighbors’ light display, oh hell no, google or bing ‘Christmas lights in Tokyo/Japan’ and just look at the pretty lights.
Christmas Even is a lot bigger in Japan than Christmas Day, too. I’ll save that post for New Years Eve here though so we can compare the two.
Onto dinner!
On Thursday after we closed early at my first job, mom and I drove over to the Sage Market to pick up some snacks an’ such for x-mass eve.
You know how on x-mass eve we usually eat a ham or something? In Japan they have KFC. Yes you read that right. Kentucky Fried Chicken (or Kitchen Fried Chicken, whatever KFC is calling it this year). It’s the busiest night of the year for that company in Japan and I’m not 100% sure why. I read somewhere that it was because a Japanese man said he liked eating KFC on x-mass eve so most of the country ran with that idea.
Although there is a KFC literally right across the street from where I work, joined with Taco Hell, I’m not stopping there on my way home. I like KFC and all but if I want fried chicken I’ll fecking make fried chicken.
But first is everything else.
After work yesterday mom and I drove over to the Japan-Sage Market to pick up some snacks for dinner.

Two kinds of squid, one is seasoned with sake and I couldn’t place the other flavor. If you aren’t sure what Pocky is then let me say it’s basically a biscuit with frosting on it, very yummy. And the shrimp flavored chips are the best thing ever! They aren’t very shrimpy and they are crunchy. You can usually find Pocky and shrimp chips in the Asian section of your grocery store.

The first seasoned squid was yummy to me, I'm not sure what dad thought, mom was so not impressed-she didn't like it at all! The sake squid we've had before, again mom's not a fan. However we all liked the shrimp chips and pocky.

On Christmas Eve, Macy's gave it's employees the best gift ever! There was NO music playing! Why do I call this the best gift ever? After Halloween we hear NOTHING but friggin' christmas music! I've grown to hate carols because that's all I've heard for the last two months. Over kill much? Yes.
Anyways.

After work on Christmas Eve I came home and began fixing dinner. The menue I selected was:

Ginger Flavored Fried Chicken (thank you about.com)

Fried Wontons
Christmas Cake (thank you joyofbaking.com)

And the only thing that didn't give me grief in one form or another was the cake. I really think I'm a better baker than a cook.

First thing I did was the cake because it would have to chill and the eggs would need to come up to room temp. Christmas Cakes in Japan are really nothing more than a sponge cake with strawberries and whipped topping. Sounds easy right? Well not so much, sponge cakes are known for being tricky because they have more eggs in them than your average cake. It makes it a lot easier for them to get flat or be over mixed.
What you do first is separate 6 eggs, then set the ovan to 350F (177C).

After they are separated you let them come up to room temp., to prevent icky things from happening to them I'd recomend covering with a towel, foil, or something of the like.
Once they come up to temp., it's time to break out the sugar and cake flour. I used wheat cake flour. Sift 1 cup of flour into a bowl with 1/4 cup of sugar. Set aside. In a mixing bowl add the 6 egg yolks to another 1/2 cup of sugar.

Now here it said to beat on high for 5 minutes or until thick, fluffy, and lightly colored. I decided to hand whisk this so the egg yolk didn't get over beaten... so if you do that, go at a medium-fast speed until the mix is lightly colored, fluffy, and your arm's ready to fall off. Then beat in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of water, until well mized in.

You'll know it's well mixed when it 'ribbons off' all that means is you scoop it up with something and it slides off consistandly, doesn't prip, but looks like a ribbon.

Set aside and pull out a clean bowl. Put the egg whites inside and be ready to whisk again! For this I do recomend a mixer. Use the lowest setting you've got and whisk until the whites are foamy.

Next, slowly add in 1/4 cup sugar and beat on low until it's shiny and stiff peaks show. That means as you turn the beater off and lift it out of the mix, there's a peak that won't melt/sink right away or at all.

Bring back over the other mixture and add in the white mix, very GENTLY fold them to gether. Those who don't know what this is: you take a spoon/spacula scoop up a bottom part of the mix and bring it over the top. Reapeat this until it's mixed/folded well.

So now it's all mixed together. Take out a circular cake pan and non-stick-spray the bottom only.

I put my cake pan over a cookie sheet just incase the cake batter went over the edge. I've had it happen with other cakse. Let the cake bake in the ovan for about a half hour or 35 minutes. When it's ready you should be able to stick a toothpick in and have it come out clean. I prefer to use a butter knife for this trick, though, because it'll go all the way through the cake.

If it comes out clean, leave the cake in the pan and let it cool completely. This could take an hour or so, one thing you can dso is start the frosting.

I forgot to take pictures of the frosting sorry.

Here's what you do. Put 1-2 cups heavy whipping cream in a bowel, add a 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon sugar. stir lightly and put it in the fridge for a half hour, along with the whisk/beaters you want to use for this.

As it gets chilly break out the strawberries. I do not recomend using the frozen ones for this because they are too juicy. Get fresh ones! Cut about five in thirds and then the tops off another 5. Set asaide.

When you take them out start whisking on low speed. You'll know this is done because it will be thick and have stiff peaks. Set aside.

Once the cake is completely cooled, drop it once or twice to loosen it out of the pan. Put onto a plate and with a cake-wire or long kitchen knife cut the cake in half.

Add a layer of frosting on the bottom half of the cake. Next add the cut strawberries onto that later of frosting. Frost the other cut layer-bottom and then flip it onto the frosted strawberry half. Begin frosting the rest of the cake, starting from the middle of the top and working your way out and down. Save a little of the frosting and put it in five small mounds on the top of the cake for the five strawberries.

Ta da! You now have a Christmas Cake! Of course you can make it extra fancy by adding x-mass decoratios or a dusting of powdered sugar.

Wontons and chicken will be in Part 2

Niku Dofu

First off, I’m sorry about the long absence. Life got in the way and soon I’ll be starting back at school again.

I have been cooking though, mostly one-pot dishes to keep the family warm. Snow hit Utah just before Turkey Day (Thanksgiving), and the warmest we’ve been since then is like 50 degrees F.
Last night I cooked up Niku Dofu, which is simmered tofu and meat, I used a beef steak cut. You start off by boiling soy, sake, dashi and sugar in a pan then add the sliced beef/meat. It only boils until it turns color and you pull it out of the liquid then set to the side. Now here is where I had to substitute, not by choice, see you’re supposed to use enoki mushrooms; however daddy didn’t find any at the store. Button mushrooms got thrown into the pot instead.

After the mushrooms, a medium quartered onion goes in too. Followed by one block-firm, cubed, tofu. Simmer them all together for about five minutes before reintroducing the beef. Cook them all together until they are cooked through, serve immediately.

I didn’t cook anything else to go with that dish last night ‘cause I was very short on time. A few options could be the usual rice or maybe even some stir-fried veggies.


Next week, I’ll only be cooking one dish and I’m going to push for it to be the Christmas Eve dinner. I’ll be surfing the net in search of what is usually eaten, other than KFC, in Japan. Since x-mass isn’t a traditional holiday in Japan, I don’t expect traditional foods. XD